rosy simas

TRIBE: Seneca

MEDIUM: Modern Dance and Choreography

LOCATION: Minneapolis, Minnesota

Rosy Simas' work investigates how culture, history, homeland, and identity are stored in the body and expressed in movement. Simas is driven by many inspirations: philosophy, relationships, art, nature, poetry, music, and history. Over the past 23 years her work has developed and matured as she has created work speaking to a wide range of subject matter — from the Iraq war to her grandmother’s Indian boarding school experience — and involved artists of many different backgrounds, ethnicities, and genders.

Simas says, “My current work focuses on creating dance about the contemporary Native experience, working with other Native artists, and artists of color, and developing methods to broaden my Native audience. It explores ideas and feelings about identity, home, displacement and belonging. I ask myself: What of my body is Native? Do I see my ancestors in my hands, my arms? Do I feel them in my blood? How do I move when I detect the presence of my grandmother and my uncle who have passed on? How do I carry them — in my mind, memories, DNA, spirit? “